Timeliness of postoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen monitoring for predicting recurrence after gastric cancer surgery

Table 1 Criteria for recurrence and case distribution

Criterion for recurrence	Number of cases (n)	Percentage (%)
Imaging (CT or PET/CT) revealing new masses within the primary surgical field	15	38.5
Imaging (CT or PET/CT) detecting space-occupying lesions in other organs (distant metastasis), with primary tumors excluded	12	30.8
Confirmation of recurrence via gastroscopy and pathological biopsy (local recurrence)	8	20.5
Confirmation of recurrence through reoperation or exploratory surgery	2	5.1
Presence of uncontrollable hemorrhagic ascites, or detection of cancer cells in ascites cytology (peritoneal carcinomatosis)	2	5.1
Total	39	100

CT: Computed tomography; PET: Positron emission tomography.